Be patient,

For the world is broad and wide.

— Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

Travellers never did lie,

Though fools at home

Condemn them.

— Shakespeare, The Trempest

Well, well, well, it was time for my trip to Berlin, Germany, to attend the wedding of my daughter as I mentioned last week in my footnote. I’ve travelled the world extensively — North America, Europe, Africa, Asia and beyond, but this trip was by far my most important venture.

Now, I’ve always balked and scoffed at people who took various flights around the world just to get to where they were going. But mout mek fi talk and circumstances alter cases. I had no choice but to take a circuitous route, so my agent booked me from Kingston to Atlanta, New York then Berlin. The return would be Berlin, Amsterdam, Atlanta, Kingston.

Simple, right? Well, I told my wife that this would be yet another of my many adventures, but little did I know what was in store for me. My main concern was the Atlanta to New York leg, as the time in-between flights was just too short, I thought, only one hour, and by the time the plane landed, taxied, and we deplaned, I wouldn’t have enough time to catch the Berlin leg of the flight. But I travel light, just one hand luggage, nothing else.

Travel lightly, move fast is my motto. But every good racehorse has a handicap. Because my wife couldn’t make the trip, she did the next best thing and baked a wedding cake. The challenge was, how do you transport a wedding cake through all those flights?

At first we decided to cut it up into serving sizes and put them into those little boxes. But when we assembled the 60 little boxes and placed them in the bag, they just seemed too suspicious. We could just imagine those TSA agents searching every single box. Not good.

So, instead, she cut the cake into four slabs and carefully wrapped them in foil. That, of course, left only space for my only suit, eight briefs, socks and some T-shirts. The cake was priority. So off to Berlin I go.

The first leg to Atlanta was pretty uneventful and went well. The second leg to New York almost went well, as the plane was at the gate and we waited to board. “Great, I’ll make the New York to Berlln flight,” I thought. Well, never count your chickens before they are hatched, or in this case, your flight before it takes to the air.

When I looked up at the board I saw, ‘Flight delayed two hours.’ Say what?! Flight delayed?! But I’ll miss my connection! My fears were realised. I would miss the Berlin from New York leg of the trip. Immediately I sprang into action and picked up the Delta Help phone. The agent had me on for over an hour as she tried to re-route me.

At first she tried to get me on a later flight, then instead tried to go through Paris, but those didn’t pan out. Instead, the best bet was to go through Amsterdam the following day. Great, I would still make the wedding, I thought.

Not until you’ve travelled through major airports will you appreciate the volume of aircraft traffic that they handle. There are hundreds of thousands of flights with millions of people, many of them making connections to reach their destinations. Organised chaos it seems to be. Everyone is running to catch a flight somewhere.

Because of the delay, over half of the passengers on my flight also missed their connections to their various destinations. You can just imagine the level of frustration on the aircraft. But that made us bond as one as we related stories of where we were coming from, where we were connecting, and where would be our destination.

Some were coming from Texas en route to Ireland, others to Spain, Scotland, Prague and other far-off places. Different languages, one common bond — flight delayed, missed connection. It was a mini-United Nations of frustrated passengers. One lady said that she was stuck in the airport for two days trying to get a connecting flight, caught this one, only to have it delayed. All these delays were due to bad weather on the entire eastern seaboard, so we were not alone in our plight.

So we finally took off, and after landing in New York I reconfirmed my changed flight plan via Amsterdam scheduled for the evening of the following day. I then resigned myself to spending the night and the next day at the airport in New York. No fun. But I remembered that I had friends in NY, so I called up one, and before I could even finish my tale, he said, “Don’t worry, man, I’ll come and get you.”

That’s how we are in the martial arts family, nobody gets left behind, and as Seido Karate is a worldwide organisation, almost any country in the world that you show up, just say “osu”, and someone will be there.

So a hot shower, warm meal and a comfortable bed were all welcomed, And after a good night’s sleep, it was off to the airport again the next day to continue my journey to Berlin. During all this time I kept on WhatsApping my wife to tell her of my ordeal. That’s another thing: WhatsApp is king and is of utmost importance while travelling.

Most airports offer free Wi-Fi, but sometimes it’s difficult to access. When I had any problems, I just went to an agent and they connected me. So when I told my wife, “Honey, the flight delayed, bad weather, turbulence, plane dip and fall back, seat belt sign for the entire flight, In New York now, rescheduled for tomorrow…” Her response was, “Is the cake okay?”

That cake was special, and had to get to Berlin in spite of the many tribulations, delayed flights, bumpy flight, TSA searches and all. I really dislike those airport security searches, as they often go overboard. They took away a bottle of jerk seasoning powder that I was taking for my daughter. But they were not touching that cake.

That cake was special and had to get to Berlin. One TSA agent felt me up so much it felt like foreplay. I could easily join the Me Too movement after that. Then he asked me if I wanted the search done in a private room or out there in the main hall. Well, you know my answer, right there out in public, I ain’t going nowhere with no guy in no room to be felt up.

So it was off to Amsterdam, smooth sailing from now on, I thought, on to Berlin. We boarded on time and taxied out for take-off. After a while nothing was happening, no movement from the plane, just so-so engine noise. Then the dreaded announcement came: “We’ll have to return to the gate and shut the engines down, too much bad weather in the area.” Oh no, not again, not another delay.

But after an hour we took to the skies and were on our way to Amsterdam. The question is, would I miss my connection to Berlin? There was only a one-hour window between these flights, so I would surely miss it, I conceded. The flight usually takes six and a half hours, but the pilot made up time and we arrived a half hour before that flight to Berlin took off. I had to sprint like Bolt, but I made it on board.

After I got on board and settled down, this short flight seemed so ordinary after all the previous tribulations. My daughter picked me up, and her first words were: “Is the cake okay?” So now it’s on to the wedding planned for the following day. I’ll tell you all about that and about Berlin next week.

More time.

seido1@hotmail.com

Footnote: Travelling isn’t like it used to be in the past. Gone are the days when we could just jump on a plane and take a trip. Now we have to take so many things into consideration. Dress comfortably, track shoes and loose clothing, travel lightly, not too much luggage, have a contingency plan, don’t plan your trip too close to your appointment. Many people may not do what I do, but I only travel with one carry on bag. I know that ladies love to have a whole heap of carouches, but less is more. In spite of all these necessary strict security checks, people are still travelling in greater numbers. The trick is to make it as comfortable as ever.